Rollins told fellow Cabinet members that the Department of Agriculture (USDA) has been seeking data from all 50 states since February, including the names and immigration status of SNAP recipients, which she said is needed to “root out fraud” in the nation’s largest nutrition assistance program. While most Republican-led states have complied, more than 20 Democratic-led states and the District of Columbia have refused and in many cases have sued to block the request, arguing it is overbroad, invasive and illegal.

After Rollins’ remarks drew alarm from governors and anti-hunger advocates, a USDA spokesperson clarified that the department is targeting federal funds that help states administer the program, not the benefits that families use to buy food.

States and the federal government split the cost of running SNAP, while the federal government pays the full cost of monthly benefits. Cutting off administrative funds could still disrupt or delay aid if states are unable to process applications, maintain eligibility systems or staff local offices without federal support, state officials and policy experts warned.​

The USDA has not publicly detailed how soon or in what order funds would be cut, which specific pots of administrative money are at risk, or how long states would have before full suspensions took effect.

At least 22 states and the District of Columbia have sued to block the data demand, saying USDA’s request for large data files on millions of residents violates privacy protections and goes well beyond what is needed to verify eligibility. Many of those suits are coordinated in federal court in California, where a San Francisco-based judge has issued an order temporarily barring the administration from collecting the information from the suing states while the cases proceed.

Democratic officials say they already check whether people qualify for food stamps and share targeted information when necessary, but have never been required to hand over bulk, personally identifiable data at the scale USDA is now seeking.

“As you know, they’ve been gathering databases that are— people should deserve privacy, whether they’re a SNAP recipient or not. It should not be information that gets gathered by and then disseminated by the federal government. But we’re obviously following all the rules around SNAP. We always have nothing that they’re requesting would reveal anything that’s untoward about the program. And again, this is all about effectuating a policy that’s bad for the United States, bad for the state of Illinois. All we’re trying to do is feed people. And everybody in the United States deserves to have a decent three squares a day, and SNAP is really not very much money to provide to people,” Illinois Governor JB Pritzker said.

Experts note that while some fraud exists in SNAP, much of it involves organized schemes to steal or clone benefit cards or to obtain them under false identities, not widespread cheating by ordinary recipients. The department has not released clear evidence that Democratic-led states have higher fraud rates or that the sweeping data request is proportionate to the problem it is trying to solve.​

Roughly 42 million people nationwide rely on SNAP to buy groceries each month, and the program costs around 100 billion dollars a year. Traditionally, SNAP has drawn bipartisan support and has often been shielded from the fiercest partisan fights. But this year, it has become a central flashpoint in Trump’s second term agenda, including a GOP “Big Beautiful Bill” that tightened work requirements and further limited eligibility for many legal immigrants.

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CHICAGO — A federal appeals court is deliberating whether hundreds of undocumented immigrants arrested in the Chicago area in recent months should be released from detention and sent home with electronic monitoring.

Last month, U.S. District Judge Jeffrey Cummings ordered the Trump administration to release several hundred detainees on a $1,500 bond. While they waited for their immigration court dates, the former detainees would have been tracked with devices like ankle monitors or a smartphone app.

The judge ruled in response to immigration and civil rights lawyers’ allegations that Trump’s Department of Homeland Security has repeatedly violated a 2022 federal consent decree restricting the use of warrantless arrests for undocumented immigrants.

But the Trump administration appealed, and on Tuesday argued to the 7^th Circuit Court of Appeals that the judge overstepped his authority by modifying the consent decree.

Criticism of ruling

At least one of the three judges on the panel — Trump appointee Thomas Kirsch II — seemed to agree. He criticized Cummings’ November order to release detainees along with his Oct. 7 order extending the consent decree until February. Cummings was appointed by President Joe Biden.

During nearly an hour of oral arguments, Kirsch said he was “surprised — I was shocked, actually” that Cummings’ October ruling “acts as if these are two private parties negotiating over the terms of a contract.”

U.S. Department of Justice lawyer Benjamin Hayes contended that by modifying the consent decree, Cummings was exercising power he didn’t have and forcing the administration to ignore federal law. National Immigrant Justice Center attorney Keren Zwick argued that Cummings was merely interpreting existing federal law and enforcing the consent decree in response to the Trump administration altering the playing field.

Zwick and her colleagues argue the new administration’s policy encouraging agents to carry blank warrant forms and fill them out at the scene of an arrest is a violation of the consent decree. Cummings in October agreed, writing the use of I-200 warrants was “explicitly designed” to get around the requirement that agents have probable cause to believe a person is in the country illegally and he or she is a flight risk before arresting an undocumented immigrant.

Read more: Court scrutiny of ICE mounts as judge rules warrantless arrests violated order

Zwick told Kirsch that Cummings was well within his rights to modify the consent decree because the use of I-200 warrants was “never contemplated” in the years she and her colleagues negotiated with DHS over the terms of the decree.

“So what?” Kirsch replied, saying that wasn’t enough for Cummings to modify or extend the decree.

Judge John Lee, an appointee of former President Barack Obama, took the opposite view on the I-200 forms.

“It seems to me odd that the government — whoever has the White House at the time — can just say, ‘Oh, well, I think this sheet of paper is good enough,’” Lee said.

Arrests exceed ‘worst of the worst’

Though the consent decree was scheduled to expire in May, plaintiffs’ attorneys had asked for an extension, which was supposed to have left it in place while the judge weighed the arguments. Cummings’ October ruling extended the decree through early February.

But since that ruling, “Operation Midway Blitz” reached a crescendo, resulting in the arrests of several thousand people. Cummings would go on to determine that not only did I-200 arrests violate the consent decree, but so did a new DHS policy on mandatory detention.

Before a Sept. 5 decision from the U.S. Board of Immigration Appeals, the vast majority of undocumented immigrants who were arrested would be released on bond after an immigration judge determined a person didn’t have a disqualifying criminal record and was not a danger to the community or a flight risk.

But in the days before Operation Midway Blitz began last month, the Trump administration’s immigration appeals board reversed decades of precedent and ruled that detention would be mandatory for any undocumented immigrant who entered the U.S. without being “admitted” by an immigration officer.

Then on Sept. 8, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh issued a decision that allows immigration officers to take a person’s “apparent ethnicity” into account when determining reasonable suspicion to question someone’s immigration status.  As a result of those factors, thousands more people were arrested in Midway Blitz than the “worst of the worst” promised by the Trump administration, including immigrants who’ve been in the U.S. for decades.

During a Nov. 13 hearing, Cummings said his staff had determined that the vast majority of approximately 100 undocumented immigrants who have active cases in Chicago federal court were arrested either at work or commuting to and from work, including 20 landscapers and nine people apprehended at Home Depot or Menards, “presumably either seeking work or picking up materials.”

Based on that pattern, the judge said it was “highly likely” that many arrestees should not be subject to mandatory detention and were “unlikely … part of the group of drug dealers, violent criminals and assorted ne’re-do-wells that fall into category that ICE calls worst of the worst.”

Cummings has repeatedly pointed out that more than 100 of his colleagues across the country have rejected DHS’ arguments on mandatory detention since the agency began testing the new legal theory in July. But the judge has also repeatedly said he doesn’t want anyone actually dangerous to be released from ICE custody. Per his orders, DHS had identified roughly 450 people who could potentially be released before the 7th Circuit halted Cummings’ order on Nov. 19.

Kirsch, though, said the lower court judge’s theory of his power over consent decrees could prove dangerous.

“What would stop the current administration from entering into a bunch of consent decrees to entrench their policy preferences on the next administration?” he asked.

Riot control weapons case dead

Meanwhile on Tuesday, protesters, clergy and media outlets who launched a high-profile lawsuit against DHS this fall over immigration agents’ use of riot control weapons said in a court filing they plan to drop their case.

Over nearly two months of litigation, attorneys for the plaintiffs corralled hundreds of videos and photos alleging agents’ inappropriate use of force against members of the public. They also forced the release of thousands of hours of body camera footage from U.S. Customs and Border Patrol agents participating in Operation Midway Blitz.

U.S. District Judge Sara Ellis ordered Border Patrol Commander Gregory Bovino into her courtroom and later called him a liar. The judge issued a temporary restraining order restricting weapons like tear gas, pepper balls, flashbang grenades and other use of force, and last month issued a more indefinite injunction.

But the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals last month stayed Ellis’ ruling, calling it “overbroad” and ruling that the judge’s injunction overstepped and “impermissibly” infringed on how the executive branch conducts law enforcement activity.

Read more: 7th Circuit stays judge’s order restricting immigration agents’ use of riot control weapons | Restrictions on federal immigration agents’ use of riot control weapons extended indefinitely

Moving to dismiss the lawsuit will prevent the 7th Circuit or U.S. Supreme Court from giving the Trump administration any permanent expanded powers against civilians. Despite the specter of losses on appeal, plaintiffs’ lawyers on Tuesday framed ending the case as a win.

Steve Art, an attorney with Loevy & Loevy, said in a statement that the lawsuit “exposed” the Trump administration’s “justifications for its conduct … as blatant lies.”

Operation Midway Blitz abruptly wound down last month, but immigration agents are expected to return to the Chicago area in the spring.

Capitol News Illinois is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news service that distributes state government coverage to hundreds of news outlets statewide. It is funded primarily by the Illinois Press Foundation and the Robert R. McCormick Foundation. 

This article first appeared on Capitol News Illinois and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

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Beginning February 1, 2026, passengers aged 18 and older who lack a REAL ID-compliant driver’s license or accepted alternative such as a passport will be required to pay the non-refundable fee to verify their identity through a modernized system called TSA Confirm.ID. 

Originally the fee was $18, but the agency increased the fee after determining that costs for the new technology and operational expenses were higher than initially projected.

Passengers will have the option to complete the verification process and pay the fee online through a forthcoming TSA web portal before arriving at the airport. Those who choose to handle the process at the airport can expect it to take 10 to 15 minutes, though TSA officials warn it could take 30 minutes or longer in some cases.​

Once verified, travelers receive a receipt to present to TSA officers at the checkpoint, along with their non-compliant identification. The verification remains valid for 10 days, allowing passengers to complete round trips or multiple flights without paying additional fees.

TSA officials warned that paying the $45 fee does not guarantee successful identity verification. Travelers whose identities cannot be confirmed through the Confirm.ID system may be denied entry to the secure area and unable to board their flights.

According to TSA, more than 94% of travelers already present REAL ID-compliant credentials or other acceptable forms of identification when passing through airport security. 

Congress passed the REAL ID Act in 2005, establishing federal standards for state-issued identification documents to make them more difficult to counterfeit.

Originally scheduled for implementation in 2008, the deadline was repeatedly delayed due to state pushback over costs, privacy concerns, and practical challenges. The COVID-19 pandemic pushed enforcement back further until the May 7, 2025 deadline was finally enacted.

Since May, travelers have been required to show a REAL ID-compliant driver’s license, passport, or other accepted identification to pass through TSA checkpoints. Until now, those without proper documentation could still fly after undergoing additional screening and receiving a warning.

Travelers can avoid the $45 fee by presenting any of the following TSA-accepted documents:​

• REAL ID-compliant driver’s license or state photo ID (marked with a star symbol)
• U.S. passport or passport card
• State-issued Enhanced Driver’s License
• DHS Trusted Traveler cards (Global Entry, NEXUS, SENTRI, FAST)
• U.S. military ID, including dependent IDs
• Permanent resident card
• Transportation Worker Identification Credential
• Federally recognized Tribal Nation photo ID
• Foreign government-issued passport

Additionally, TSA now accepts digital IDs through Apple Wallet, Google Wallet, and Samsung Wallet at more than 250 airports across the United States.

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The decision places Illinois among a small group of states, including Maine and the District of Columbia, that have chosen not to conform to the federal tip exemption enacted as part of President Donald Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” (OBBBA), which became law on July 4, 2025.

Under the federal legislation, workers in occupations that customarily receive tips can deduct up to $25,000 annually in qualified tip income from their federal taxable income for tax years 2025 through 2028. The deduction phases out for single filers with modified adjusted gross income exceeding $150,000 and for married couples filing jointly above $300,000. Workers must still pay Social Security and Medicare taxes on their tips.

The Treasury Department published a list of 68 job categories eligible for the deduction, including bartenders, servers, delivery workers, and other roles in hospitality, entertainment, and personal services.

llinois’ tax structure gives the state latitude to decline the exemption.

The Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP) noted that Illinois, Maine, and the District of Columbia have all opted out of the tip exemption “in part because they would have lost significant revenue.” The decision comes as the state grapples with budget pressures—the Governor’s Office of Management and Budget projected Illinois would face a $267 million deficit in fiscal year 2026, partially due to other corporate tax cuts in the OBBBA. The deficit is also driven by other factors including higher-than-expected expenditures and declining consumer spending.​

A One Fair Wage (OFW) report states that tipped workers in Illinois earn a median income of approximately $14,590-$16,733 annually, which is below the poverty line.

Illinois levies a flat income tax rate of 4.95% on all income. This means that while a server or bartender may now exclude up to $25,000 in tips from federal taxation, they will owe Illinois income tax on every dollar of those same tips.

Illinois House Republicans have introduced legislation that would align the state with the federal exemption. House Bill 1750, filed by Rep. Joe C. Sosnowski (R-Rockford) in January 2025, proposes to exempt both tip income and overtime compensation from state taxation.

Two additional Republican-sponsored bills—HB1898 by Rep. Jennifer Sanalitro and HB2735 by Rep. C.D. Davidsmeyer—similarly seek to eliminate state taxes on gratuities. However, all three measures remain in the House Rules Committee with no immediate action scheduled.

For Illinois workers who rely on tips, the key takeaways are:

Federal taxes: Qualified tips can be deducted up to $25,000 when filing federal returns in early 2026 for the 2025 tax year, subject to income limitations.​

State taxes: All tip income remains fully taxable under Illinois law at the 4.95% flat rate.​

Documentation: Tax professionals recommend that tipped workers maintain detailed records and be vigilant about state-specific regulations when filing returns in 2026.

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CHICAGO — Gov. JB Pritzker signed a bill Tuesday that he said will protect Illinois residents from “junk science” undermining evidence-based vaccine regulations at the federal level.

The bill will allow the Illinois Department of Public Health director, currently Dr. Sameer Vohra, to issue state-specific guidelines with input from the state’s Immunization Advisory Committee, a group of doctors, nurses and public health professionals that advise the director.

It will also allow the committee to issue guidance that differs from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, including to approve vaccines for seasonal respiratory illnesses including the flu, COVID-19 and RSV and routine vaccines MMR and Hepatitis B vaccines.

IDPH will now be able to form guidelines using a combination of the CDC’s guidance, recommendations from the World Health Organization and other medical and scientific disease prevention experts — and require that immunizations recommended by the state be covered by state-regulated insurance plans.

House bill sponsor Rep. Bob Morgan, D-Deerfield, emphasized the timeliness of the issue, referencing breaking news from Tuesday morning that indicated the CDC vaccine advisory committee planned to discuss child immunization schedules and the efficacy of Hepatitis B vaccines when it meets on Dec. 4 and Dec. 5.

“We have relied on this federal system for trusted medical guidance in 1930,” Morgan said. “And it’s been eviscerated. The trust is gone.”

The state’s advisory committee, which will meet again later this week, is chaired by Marielle Fricchione, a pediatric infectious diseases doctor at Rush Children’s Hospital. She said the new changes will make the committee more diverse, nimble and empowered.

That’s because it requires more voices from around the state to be heard, allows the committee to follow the science in real time as more data becomes available and to step in if an IDPH director diverges from the committee’s guidelines, Fricchione said.

Fricchione added that the scientific innovation behind vaccines was worth protecting, recounting a story of a 2-year-old girl who she treated at Rush Hospital over Thanksgiving.

“I can give a kid a vaccine one day, they walk out of the clinic, and every day, that vaccine is protecting them from suffering, from preventable diseases that generation of Americans were terrified of,” Fricchione said.

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Partisan vaccine debate

Illinois legislators passed House Bill 767 on a party-line vote this October during the annual fall veto session. Republican legislators largely opposed the bill for its political undertones.

The new law follows a September executive order in which Pritzker directed IDPH to develop its own vaccine guidelines after the Food and Drug Administration withdrew approval of COVID-19 vaccines for children, pregnant patients and adults under age 65 without underlying risk conditions.

Read more: Illinois to issue its own vaccine guidelines | Illinois lawmakers approve state-specific vaccine guidelines

Before signing the bill, Pritzker took aim at U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who built his campaign on questioning the efficacy of vaccines and arguing that they cause autism, despite the lack of credible evidence supporting the assertions.

“While RFK Jr. and his QAnon-inspired colleagues spreading conspiracy theories and dangerous misinformation about vaccines are running around Washington, Illinois is stepping up to protect the health of our people,” Pritzker said.

Tripti Kataria, president-elect of the Illinois State Medical Society, applauded the bill’s signing and said she understood the amount of medical information could be confusing. She encouraged anyone concerned about vaccines to discuss it with their physicians.

Illinoisians have followed the science in the past, Pritzker said, with a 50% increase in measles vaccine uptake after the first cases were reported in April.

“We trust science here in Illinois,” Pritzker said. “So let today be a reminder to anyone listening, especially now in the midst of the flu season: Get yourself vaccinated, get your children vaccinated. Encourage your friends, especially our seniors, to get vaccinated. It is safe, it is effective, and it’s the right thing to do.”

Capitol News Illinois is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news service that distributes state government coverage to hundreds of news outlets statewide. It is funded primarily by the Illinois Press Foundation and the Robert R. McCormick Foundation.

This article first appeared on Capitol News Illinois and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

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Recent cuts by President Donald Trump’s administration could reduce the size of Illinois’ economy by nearly $10 billion each year, according to a new report released Monday by the Illinois Economic Policy Institute.

The report offers a detailed looked at the effects of cuts enacted by Trump through executive order or legislation, directives by federal agency leaders or through Elon Musk’s so-called “Department of Government Efficiency.” It also sheds light on how many jobs will not come to fruition because of the cuts.

Researchers at the organized labor-tied think tank also painted a sobering picture for state lawmakers who are tasked with mitigating the effects of the funding cuts.

“The depth of economic reductions and jobs losses caused by federal actions cannot be mitigated by expenditure reductions at the state and local levels,” researchers Frank Manzo and Robert Bruno wrote in the report. “Policymakers will need to examine new revenue sources to counter the damage done to public schools, Illinois families, and the state’s robust economy.”

Read now: IEPI Federal Funding Cut Report

By 2029, Bruno and Manzo concluded the cuts will decrease the state’s annual gross domestic product by $9.6 billion. The cuts would leave state revenues $540 million below where they would otherwise be and would lead to 86,000 fewer jobs in the state than there would have been without the cuts.

‘Big Beautiful Bill’ cuts

The One Big Beautiful Bill Act, the Republican domestic policy plan signed by Trump on July 4, makes significant changes to Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program and Medicaid eligibility and ends Affordable Care Act tax credits at the end of the year. The researchers project it will sink Illinois’ annual GDP by $5.8 billion and prevent 49,000 jobs.

The Medicaid changes could lead hundreds of thousands of people in Illinois to lose coverage because of new work requirements and other restrictions, resulting in economic activity declining by $4 billion each year.

The state will feel impacts beyond social service cuts, too.

“Phasing out clean energy tax credits, pausing Chicago-area transit projects, and freezing funding for energy projects will eliminate construction jobs for blue collar tradespeople that would have been covered by prevailing wage standards and registered apprenticeship requirements, undermining the goal of ‘making America skilled again’ that has been advanced by the Trump administration,” the report said.

The clean energy tax credits would have been especially impactful in rural areas where there is more space for wind and solar projects, the report noted. Those losses are set to decrease GDP by $2 billion and prevent 22,000 construction jobs.

Targeted cuts

Illinois, a blue state that has dealt Trump three double-digit electoral defeats since 2016, has also seen some cuts explicitly dictated by federal agencies.

Trump’s budget director announced in early October that the administration was freezing $2.1 billion in funding for Chicago transit infrastructure projects “to ensure funding is not flowing via race-based contracting.”

Read more: Trump freezes $2.1B for Chicago transit projects in latest ‘punishment’ of blue states

The decision pulled funding for the Chicago Transit Authority’s plan to extend the Red Line more than five additional miles from 95^th Street to 130^th Street. Construction was scheduled to begin next year.

Funding for a Purple Line modernization project to rehabilitate the line between the Belmont stop in Chicago and Linden terminus in Evanston is also frozen. Cutting funding for the project could jeopardize 16,000 jobs, according to the report.

DOGE cuts

Other federal cuts pursued by the “Department of Government Efficiency,” which Reuters reported last week has been disbanded earlier than expected, could have a $1.4 billion impact on annual GDP and leave the state with 3,000 fewer jobs, mostly in the private sector.

One of the hardest hit areas is infectious disease prevention by the Illinois Department of Public Health, where the state could lose $112.3 million in economic activity.

Read more: Trump administration blocks more than $400M in funding for Illinois health programs

But education from kindergarten through college could be hit even harder with a combined impact of $547.4 million in lost economic activity. Multiple federal agencies have put limits on reimbursement for research conducted at universities, while many K-12 public schools could see less funding resulting in fewer after-school programs, mental health services and teaching positions.

“By slashing funding for disease control and prevention, forcing colleges and universities to cover a larger share of indirect research costs, reducing funds for public school districts, and mandating a higher cost-share to administer food assistance, recent and proposed federal actions will strain Illinois’ budget and prevent the state from using taxpayer dollars on more productive public policies, programs and investments,” the report said.

Tariffs and executive orders

Federal budget cuts aren’t the only areas that could be a drag on economic activity in Illinois. The governor’s office released new information last week from some state agencies detailing the effect of tariffs in accordance with Gov. JB Pritzker’s July executive order.

Families and businesses will see some of the most significant impacts, according to the reports. According to the Department of Employment Security, the average Illinois household faces $3,400 in increased annual costs while unemployment claims in Illinois have risen by 16% in the last year. Businesses are also collectively seeing costs rise by $24 billion.

Food banks and other hunger alleviation programs are also struggling, not just under the weight of higher grocery prices, but with fewer donations as consumers and businesses cut costs, according to the Department of Human Services. The Department of Public Health also reports that more health care organizations are becoming unprofitable because of higher costs.

Capitol News Illinois is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news service that distributes state government coverage to hundreds of news outlets statewide. It is funded primarily by the Illinois Press Foundation and the Robert R. McCormick Foundation.

This article first appeared on Capitol News Illinois and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

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Set in the immersive environment of the Staerkel Planetarium, “Santa’s Secret Star” introduces audiences to the North Star and other key stars and constellations that decorate the winter sky. The story follows Santa’s journey and shows how the night sky changes as travelers move northward, turning a classic holiday theme into an accessible astronomy lesson for young observers.

Admission is $8 for adults and $7 for Parkland students, seniors 62 and older, and children 12 and under, with Friends of the Staerkel Planetarium members admitted free. Tickets are available online in advance or at the door starting 30 minutes before showtime, subject to availability.

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The Consumer Confidence Index declined by 6.8 points to 88.7 in November, down from a revised 95.5 in October.

Key Indicators Signal Growing Recession Risk

The report’s two main components both deteriorated significantly:

• The Expectations Index—which gauges consumers’ short-term outlook for income, business, and labor market conditions—plunged by 8.6 points to 63.2. This index has now tracked below the critical 80-point threshold, which traditionally signals a recession ahead, for ten consecutive months.
• The Present Situation Index—based on consumers’ assessment of current business and labor market conditions—also fell by 4.3 points to 126.9, indicating a less sanguine view of the current economic climate.

Consumer pessimism was primarily fueled by ongoing references to prices and inflation, tariffs and trade, and politics. The report noted a specific rise in mentions of the recent federal government shutdown as a factor affecting the economy.

Consumers who believe the economy is already in recession rose for the fourth consecutive month. While views on the current labor market differential dipped, expectations for future household incomes “shrunk dramatically” after months of positive readings.

Confidence on a six-month moving average basis fell for nearly all income cohorts, though consumers under 35 years old showed continued improvement.

The diminished outlook immediately impacted consumers’ plans for major purchases. Plans for buying big-ticket items over the next six months declined across the board in November.

• Car purchasing expectations ticked downward for both new and used vehicles.
• Plans for household appliances and most electronics also edged lower.
• Vacation intentions fell back after a surge in October, consistent with reduced intentions to spend on hotels, motels, and airfare.

Despite persistent economic uncertainty and cautious consumer sentiment leading into the holiday season, Black Friday 2025 shattered online sales records. U.S. consumers spent a record $11.8 billion online, according to Adobe Analytics, marking 9.1% year-over-year growth and surpassing $11 billion for the first time.

Over half of Black Friday’s online sales originated from mobile devices, cementing the smartphone as the primary shopping tool for research, deal comparison, and purchasing. Shoppers significantly ramped up their use of “Buy Now, Pay Later” (BNPL) services, which accounted for an estimated $747.5 million in digital sales. This surge indicates that consumers are leveraging flexible payment options to manage cash flow and afford big-ticket purchases like electronics, apparel, and furniture while still chasing discounts.

The attention now shifts to Cyber Monday, which is forecast to be the single largest online shopping day of the year.

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Trump justified the pardon on Truth Social by claiming that “according to many people that I greatly respect,” Hernández was “treated very harshly and unfairly.”

The decision has ignited criticism given the Trump administration’s simultaneous military escalation against drug trafficking in the Caribbean, where the U.S. has deployed its largest carrier strike group in decades and conducted strikes that have killed more than 80 individuals on suspected drug-running vessels. Trump has spent the last year targeting Mexico, Canada and China over drug imports while also targeting immigrants.

Hernández was extradited to the United States in April 2022, weeks after leaving office, and convicted in March 2024 on three counts related to drug trafficking and weapons conspiracy.

The indictment alleged that between 2004 and 2022, Hernández participated in a conspiracy to facilitate the importation of hundreds of thousands of kilograms of cocaine through Honduras and into the United States. Prosecutors alleged he received millions of dollars in bribes from major drug trafficking organizations, including the Sinaloa Cartel, in exchange for using his political power, law enforcement agencies, and the military to protect drug shipments.​

Among the most damning evidence was testimony that Hernández accepted a $1 million bribe from Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán in 2013 while campaigning for president. A confessed former drug trafficker testified he personally witnessed El Chapo present the money, organized in stacks of $50,000 and $100,000, to Hernández’s brother Tony, who delivered it for the campaign. Prosecutors also introduced testimony that Hernández once declared he wanted to “shove the drugs right up the noses of the gringos” while vowing to deceive U.S. officials about his counternarcotics efforts.

Judge P. Kevin Castel, who presided over the case, described Hernández as a “two-faced politician hungry for power” who publicly presented himself as an anti-drug crusader while secretly collaborating with traffickers. Former Attorney General Merrick Garland stated at sentencing that Hernández “abused his presidency to operate the country as a narco-state where violent traffickers operated with near-total impunity.”

Trump has pardoned nine other individuals convicted of federal drug offenses during his second term.

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In a rare joint statement, Chairman Mike Rogers (R-Ala.) and Ranking Member Adam Smith (D-Wash.) declared their committee “committed to providing rigorous oversight of the Department of Defense’s military operations in the Caribbean.” The lawmakers cited “serious” reports of subsequent attacks on boats “alleged to be ferrying narcotics in the SOUTHCOM region” and vowed “bipartisan action to gather a full accounting of the operation in question.”

The investigation centers on a September 2 incident first reported by The Washington Post, in which Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth allegedly ordered Special Operations forces to ensure no survivors remained after a strike on a vessel suspected of carrying drugs. According to officials with direct knowledge of the operation, an initial missile attack left two men alive in the water, but a commander ordered a second strike after receiving Hegseth’s instructions to “kill everybody.”

The September 2 attack marked the beginning of an intensified campaign that has resulted in more than a dozen strikes on alleged drug-running boats, killing over 80 people in the past three months. The U.S. Southern Command (SOUTHCOM) has acknowledged conducting at least 21 such strikes, with the most recent occurring in the eastern Pacific on November 15.​​

President Donald Trump has simultaneously escalated pressure on Venezuela, announcing that Venezuelan airspace is “closed in its entirety” and confirming conversations with President Nicolás Maduro while threatening imminent land operations. The administration has designated the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua as a foreign terrorist organization, using that designation to justify military action under the law of armed conflict.

The strikes have triggered alarm among international allies and legal experts. The United Kingdom ceased sharing intelligence with the U.S. regarding suspected drug vessels in the Caribbean, citing concerns about complicity in potentially illegal operations. 

The Senate Armed Services Committee has launched a parallel investigation, with Chairman Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) and Ranking Member Jack Reed (D-R.I.) announcing “vigorous oversight to determine the facts related to these circumstances.”

The investigation unfolds amid the largest U.S. naval buildup in the Caribbean in decades, involving the USS Gerald R. Ford aircraft carrier strike group, at least seven warships, a nuclear submarine, and 4,500 troops. While the Trump administration describes the deployment as counter-narcotics operation “Operation Southern Spear,” experts assess the military posture as preparation for potential action against the Maduro government.​

Venezuela has responded by mobilizing over four million soldiers in its Bolivarian Militia and announcing a “prolonged resistance” strategy involving guerrilla-style tactics from over 280 locations if the U.S. invades.

The Pentagon has not released evidence supporting its claims that all targeted vessels were linked to designated terrorist organizations or that drugs were present on the destroyed boats.

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